On Fonology
by Hikaru Irving
Summary: A comprehensive document on the study of fonons, memory particles, and fonic technology as well as their effects on the planet Auldrant and its human civilizations.
1. Introduction

Hikaru: Hahah ... wow. I wonder about myself sometimes.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with the copyright holders of Tales of the Abyss, nor am I making any material profit from this work; it is purely fan made fun.

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Fonons are essential components of matter that emit sound, there are seven known types of fonons, and they gather in layered rings around the planet Auldrant, commonly called the fon belt.

From the outermost layer of the fon belt, the types go as follows: the Sixth layer is Light, Fifth layer is Fire, Fourth layer is Water, Third layer is Wind, Second layer is Earth, and the First layer is Shadow.

Each fonon type is drawn onto Auldrant by not only its natural gravitational force, but also by the planet's fon slots, points on the planet and every single existing object where fonons tend to concentrate in large number. The planet's fon slots are especially more adept at drawing in fonons from the fon belt because of the memory particles--fragments of the planet's memory from the core--are themselves a particle type different from fonons, but tend to draw fonons of all types.

People learned to use these fonons and developed techniques called fonic artes, an ability that became the basis of Auldrantian civilization. Now, the presence of the fonon does not make any other particles of molecular matter--atoms and elements, ions, neutrons, protons, electrons--any less important, but there is a key reason why fonons became extremely important to the people of Auldrant.

Unlike atoms and other forms of molecular matter, fonons are freely flowing on their own and do not have as rigid and set a structure as do atomic structures. Skilled fonists--people who channel and manipulate fonons at will--are able to easily converge and pull apart fonons, whereas that is not even possible in the case of certain molecular structures and atomic particles.

In fact, fonons are so freely flowing that they ever permanently stay in place in certain forms--biotic and abiotic--are due to the combination of fonon types along with atomic particles.

In addition to embodying the elements, there is another aspect of fonons that has made them of extreme importance to Auldrantian civilization--fonons of all types emit a signature vibration frequency, and when harnessed properly these vibrations can resonate and generate energy--a process familiar to fonists, as this phenomenon is the basis for using fonic artes.

In early Auldrantian civilization, fuel and power were used in the form of gathering large amounts of a certain fonon type and causing them to resonate to generate their power. Of course, this was not especially useful to civilization until machines began to develop, but in very early humanity only a few people knew the secrets of fonic artes, and fonists usually passed their secrets and skills through their families.

While using fonon resonance as a way to generate power for machines in earlier civilization was sufficient, a group of fonists investigating one of the planet's fon slots found a more efficient way to power fonic technology--the use of memory particles.

Originating in the planet's core, memory particles had much pent-up energy from being confined in the intense pressure inside the core and being bounced around other memory particles constantly before being shot out of the core via one of the planet's ten major fon slots.

Upon harnessing the latent power of memory particles, the old fueling system of using fonic resonance went obsolete, and the way was paved for the Dawn Age of Auldrant.

As technology progressed, civilization was strained at fixed periods of time due to the over-consumption of memory particles--new memory particles are always being formed the core, but it takes time for the new particles to shoot out of the core, therefore if an industrialized country built around a planetary fon slot ran their fon slot dry of memory particles, it would often collapse before new memory particles were able to shoot out the fon slot in enough numbers to power a country so reliant on memory particles.

Before the true Dawn Age began, human civilization was always constantly progressing and regressing, advancing when memory particles around the planetary fon slots in their territory were plentiful, and pushed back when the memory particles went dry.

The period of advancement we now call the Dawn Age was the time when Dr. Southern-Cross had proposed a permanent fueling system using the planetary fon slots--Sephiroth--to constantly channel and funnel memory particles in and out of the planet's core in an cycle to have memory particles as freely flowing as fonons are and never again have a shortage of energy.

The most powerful Sephiroth were those on the poles of the planet, so Dr. Southern-Cross among others had utilized those Sephiroth to create the Planet Storm. We know them now as the Absorption Gate of the North Pole, where memory particles and fonons enter the core, and the Radiation Gate, where memory particles and fonons exit the core.

It was in fact the Planet Storm that allowed the beginning of the Dawn Age, but is common misconception that the Planet Storm was developed during the Dawn Age.

Up until then there were only six known types of fonons--but the Planet Storm had brought about another fonon type: the Seventh Fonon.

Although Dr. Southern-Cross had thought it of little consequence at the time, a side effect of the massive force of the Planet Storm is that it brought in not only memory particles, but fonons of all types from the fon belt within the planet's core, where the intense pressure, heat, and kinetic energy forged a new type of fonon that is a variant of all six fonon types plus memory particles.

The Seventh Fonon indeed was a curiosity to the fonologists who studied it. The fonon of sound, the Seventh Fonon had the power to break down matter to an atomic level, but it also had the power to reform matter. Being a freely flowing fonon and therefore usable by fonists, this meant that fonists who could use the Seventh Fonon could use it to heal injured or diseased people--a significant advantage over using the older methods of conventional medicine.

The destructive power of the Seventh Fonon is through a phenomenon that, prior to the use of memory particles as an energy source, previously had no real destructive force. The interference of Seventh Fonons with one another amplifies their fonon frequencies, and in small amounts, the resulting resonance is inconsequential.

But in large quantities, the amplified frequencies have enough power to completely obliterate everything in a given space--including parts of the atmosphere. This is known as hyperresonance. However, two Seventh Fonists are required to generate a hyperresonance, and the exact circumstances of hyperresonance are innumerable and unknowable. Even when a hyperresonance occurs between Seventh Fonists, it is only about one fourth the true power of hyperresonance.

Further study of the Seventh Fonon revealed exactly why it could break down and reform matter--being a combination of all six fonon types (and therefore conflicting elements that ought to cancel out one another), the Seventh Fonon is inherently unstable. Secondly, it is forged with memory particles, fragments of the planet's memory--the established natural order of healing artes will tell us that the process of healing is actually the feeding of memory particles to the wounded or diseased area of the body, and the particles cause the body to "remember" the proper form and/or order of the injury or diseased area, thusly speeding up the healing process exponentially.

But the most significant change brought about by the Seventh Fonon was the fact that as a usable fonon within reach of certain fonists, it would give fonists and fonologists a chance to more effectively study memory particles, the planet' s memory, in greater detail.

Seventh Fonists and Fonologists discovered that if one could use the Seventh Fonon, one could see the future. These prophecies are known today as the Score.

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Hikaru: Whew! I'll go into more detail in certain subjects in later chapters ... the beginning is just a overview of how fonons--particularly the Seventh--impacted Auldrant and its civilization. Later subjects will include, but are not limited to, fon slots, fonic artes, strike artes, utilization of fields of fonons, fontech, the laws of attraction and repulsion of fonons, etc.


	2. The Fonic War and Yulia's Score

Hikaru: Continuing on the Score and its rise to the greatest influential force on the face of Auldrant. Also includes capacity cores, Yulia's pact with Lorelei, and the Fonic War that ended up creating the miasma.

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The Dawn Age is famous for not only being the period of human history when technology had reached its most advanced peak and the most profound cultural awakening but also nearly every single person living in the Dawn Age were able--and encouraged--to use fonic artes to their greatest potential.

Prior to the Dawn Age, the ability to harness and effectively use fonic artes was kept secret by the families of skilled fonists and used as leverage to gain political power, as is evident in studies of civilizations of antiquity even earlier than the Dawn Age. This monopolization of the power of fonic artes to gain and keep power occurred quite frequently during the ages of decline when a planetary fon slot stopped turning out a continuous stream of memory particles to power one or more country's system.

But the Dawn Age not only allowed each and every person to use fonic artes to their strengths, it was actually required to an extent to have some knowledge of manipulating and channeling fonons to be able to work and live in a society such as the Dawn Age.

Schools of fonology for practical and academic purposes were commonplace, but training hundreds, even thousands, of fonists every year was no easy or cheap task. Many student fonists and fonologists had dropped out of their schools due to rising cost of attending and materials, and the displaced students had nowhere to go and had nearly nothing to contribute to Dawn Age society.

Programs and welfare laws were passed during this age to make attending these fonology schools easier and less strenuous--financially or otherwise--on the students. Inventors also worked to create products to aid students who had a hard time learning to harness the power of fonic artes.

One such invention is the item called a capacity core. This accessory is forged with a specific fonon type to attract the fonon type a fonist is most adept with, and attached on or near a person's fon slots--rings and bracelets for the fon slot located in the hands, anklets for the fon slot of the feet, earrings for the ears, necklaces and torques for the throat, and eyeglasses for the fon slot located on the eyes.

Capacity cores are also inscribed with a fon verse to aid the attraction of the fonon type.

Capacity cores were so useful to fonists, novice and master alike, that capacity cores were made to amplify the fonic abilities of weapons, armor, and fontech machines--capacity cores also made nice fashion accessories, as civilians found, thereby adding yet another market for the capacity core.

In time, capacity cores could also be made for other fonic functions different from attracting fonons--certain kinds of cores could be used to disperse fonons or some other such thing to make the purpose of the operation, machine, or person using the capacity core easier to execute.

Unfortunately, in addition to boosting the overall function and productivity of the Dawn Age countries for peacetime purposes, the use of capacity cores added tension to the already intense political stage due to the controversy brewing worldwide over using the Seventh Fonon to read prophecies known as the Score.

The use of capacity cores strengthened exponentially peacetime as well as wartime engines such as military assets as soldiers, weapons, defenses, etc. The capacity cores would redefine how war was waged as powerful amplifiers, as seen in the Dawn Age war that consumed the whole of Auldrant. We know it today as the Fonic War.

The Fonic War was waged over the Seventh Fonon between two alliances of countries worldwide--one group of powers believed that using the Seventh Fonon to read the planet's future in the prophecies known as the Score would be good for humanity, while the opposing group of powers believed that using such a thing would lead only to disaster and calamity.

We know little beyond this tidbit of information because the Fonic War was so furious and destructive that any records of in-depth details about the war, such as the names of the countries that formed the powers, and exactly how it was waged back and forth were lost.

However, we do know from what little records of the war exist that the powers that opposed using the Score to predict the future very nearly defeated the pro-Score powers. It was when the anti-Score powers had trapped their opponents that something unexpected had happened and brought the Fonic War itself to a standstill.

Just as the Planet Storm created the Seventh Fonon as a byproduct of all the fonon types along with memory particles, the fonic activities--especially those of fonic weapons of mass destruction--brought about a deadly poisonous mist dubbed the "miasma."

Exactly how the miasma came about is unknown, however, it is widely believed to have been brought about by ambient fonons left over from ferocious fonic battles amplifying the decay of life on the innumerable battlefields--not just soldiers, but also animals and plants. The loss of life itself is unimaginable and staggering, sometimes entire peninsulas and other land masses were completely purged of life of any kind. The lands and seas were piled and littered with the decaying dead of not only fighters of the war, but also innocent bystanders, human or otherwise.

It is also commonly believed by scholars and historians that the Planet Storm helped stir up the reactions the fonons of all types had with the decaying dead littered across entire continents, thus had contributed to the rapid spread of miasma. Because the Planet Storm indiscriminately takes in matter of enough ambience into the planet's core, the miasma followed the fonons First through Seventh and memory particles into the core, where it is shot out of the Sephiroth, thereby contributing to the spread of the miasma.

Within a year the miasma problem had covered the entire planet. War had screeched to a halt and a truce was made between the conflicting powers to deal with the miasma. They had tried properly disposing of the dead left behind by the war, but the problem had already advanced well beyond being contained by such means.

Multiple plans to get rid of the miasma were tried, including one plan that involved the largest facility to cultivate and utilize the Third Fonon the world had ever seen to blow away the miasma, but the Planet Storm kept pulling the miasma into the core and back on the surface of the planet.

No matter what the people of the Dawn Age did not want to lose the Planet Storm. Only as a last resort would they stop the Planet Storm to stop the miasma completely. But Dr. Southern-Cross had studied the situation, and they were beyond the point where shutting down the Planet Storm would have helped any--the miasma was simply too thick, in too large a quantity.

The problem of the miasma was so critical that a seemingly absurd notion was brought up and put into action--the act of leaving for another planet entirely. The Tower of Rem was a building made to aid the process of launching vehicles into outer space. However, the Tower of Rem would never be completed.

Yulia Jue, a fonist skilled particularly in prophecy and a profound inventor, stepped up to the plate, proposing to use a Score to see what the future held for Auldrant. However, using the Seventh Fonon, especially to read a Score, was immensely difficult. To aid in giving her Score the greatest accuracy possible, Yulia made it her mission to summon the aggregate sentience of the Seventh Fonon, Lorelei.

Since like fonons attract, Yulia spent much of her homeland's time and money researching a way to gather enough Seventh Fonons to summon Lorelei and read the dead-accurate Score she desired so no mistake would be made about the future of the planet.

Rigorous research and invention produced the fruits of Yulia's labors--the Key of Lorelei, an item made from a sword made up entirely of Seventh Fonons and a jewel, also made up of Seventh Fonons. The sword was meant to gather the appropriate amount of Seventh Fonons to summon Lorelei, and the jewel to disperse them. The jewel of Lorelei was a security measure for Yulia--summoning the sentience of the Seventh Fonon was an incredibly dangerous thing to do, near suicidal--with such a dense concentration of Seventh Fonons, a hyperresonance could occur at any time during Yulia's Score reading and consequently kill her.

In addition to the Key of Lorelei, Yulia had a capacity core that came to be known as the Sorcerer's Ring to amplify her fonic artes.

Thus equipped, Yulia Jue and her followers, one of them a man by the name of Fende, traveled to the one of the Sephiroth--which one is not exactly clear, but historians have narrowed it down to either the Absorption Gate or Radiation Gate, as those Sephiroth are closest to the planet's core, where the aggregate sentience of the Seventh Fonon was said to have formed. This is not an unreasonable assumption because the Seventh Fonon itself had been created in the planet's core.

In the Sephiroth, Yulia used the Key of Lorelei to gather enough Seventh Fonons to draw Lorelei to her and her followers, the witnesses of her endeavor. She and Lorelei conversed for a time, Lorelei asking what it was that Yulia meant to accomplish by achieving a dead accurate Score, and Yulia replying that she wanted only the best for humanity and thusly wanted the most accurate Score possible.

The exact reason and details behind Yulia's pact with Lorelei is still unclear, but historians and scholars agree that in exchange for Lorelei providing Yulia with the clearest vision possible to the future of Auldrant, Yulia would in turn use the Score to guide humanity in a direction so as not to make the same mistakes of the Dawn Age. Thusly Yulia had become a watcher for Auldrant.

To remember their agreement in ages to come, Yulia offered her hymns as symbol of the covenant between her and Lorelei. Lorelei accepted, and Yulia began to read her Score.

In that Score Yulia foresaw hundreds and thousands of years in the future, and revealed a way to seal the miasma underground. In following Yulia's Score the world was saved, and a religion wherein following her Score was considered the greatest virtue, formed.

Yulia's Score would rule the world for thousands of years to come as Auldrant entered a new age: ND, the New Dawn.

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Hikaru: So this is not strictly just about fonology, but the history of how fonic power affected Auldrant is equally important as well. The history of the Dawn Age and the Score wasn't exactly clear or even addressed in detail, so I had to take certain liberties with the Dawn Age and its legacies.


	3. Fon Slots

Hikaru: This section focuses on fon slots and their roles in channeling fonons.

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Every single object, biotic and abiotic alike, have points where fonons tend to concentrate in great number. Fon slots are innumerable, but every single thing has ten major fon slots--the planet's ten major fon slots are called Sephiroth.

In organisms, these fon slots can be categorized as follows: external fon slots and internal fon slots. External fon slots consist of the eyes, the throat (vocal chords), the ears, the hands, and the feet. Internal fon slots are the brain, the heart, the lungs, the intestines, and the stomach.

Most fonists use their external fon slots--not only are they easier to use, but the use of internal fon slots is immensely difficult for even the most accomplished fonist, and the slightest mistake in gathering and channeling fonons with one's internal fon slots can have disastrous results that can damage, destroy, or otherwise impair the internal vital systems of the fonist, depending on what fonon type was mishandled at which internal fon slot.

Mistakes when using fonons with the external fon slots tend to be less disastrous because unlike internal fon slots, external fon slots are more open and have more room to safely disperse the fonons gathered.

Internal fon slots are also more difficult to use for fonic artes because the majority of fonons taken into the internal fon slots through the external fon slots and other pathways are usually used for the maintenance of the internal vital systems. When these fonons are taken away for use in fonic artes instead of the maintenance of the body's functions, it strains the body and metabolism slows, and if the case is severe then the body might even shut down--whether it shuts down temporarily or completely depends on the severity of the situation.

However, if a fonist is skilled enough, he may use his external fon slots to gather and funnel fonons into his internal fon slots, and in using his entire body to channel fonons unleashes immensely powerful fonic artes. Few fonists could achieve that level of dexterity in manipulating fonons without injuring himself in some way, usually beyond repair.

While the internal fon slots must usually reserve their purposes for regulating bodily function, the external fon slots have a freer role in the uses of fonons.

Depending on the type of fonist, the external fon slots have a number of roles. For fonists who use fonons when fighting in a melee style, the fon slots they use most often are the vocal chords, the hands and feet. For traditional fonists, their fon slots of choice are the vocal chords, the eyes and ears.

Fonists of both types must use the fon slot that consists of the vocal chords because the vocal chords make up the most powerful external fon slot. A large part of using fonic artes, whether for strike artes or otherwise involves shaping the fonic arte, and that is accomplished by voicing fon verses as it aids in executing the fonic arte.

Another reason the vocal chords are the most powerful external fon slot is that generating and channeling the fonons gathered involves causing fonic resonance, and uttering a fon verse in harmony with the resonance safely removes the fonons from the fonist's body via traveling sound waves.

Both types of fonists also use the eyes to some degree, although traditional fonists use their eyes for fonic artes more often than melee fonists. The purpose of the fon slot that consists of the eyes is perception, both in gathering fonons and dispersing them when a fonic arte is formed. It is the eyes in conjunction with the vocal chords that execute a fonic arte.

While the ears themselves function to translate vibrations into the phenomenon we know as sound, as a fon slot the ears act more as a reservoir of fonons kept close at hand until the fonist has need of the extra fonons--the vibration frequencies of freely flowing fonons are often measured as higher than the highest range of human hearing, well beyond the 20,000 hertz limit. Certain fonon frequencies are also lower than the 16 hertz limit, although they are often detectable by fon slots in lieu of translatable sound.

Melee fonists have more use for the fon slots of the hands and feet than traditional fonists do. These fon slots allow melee fonists to directly handle and channel fonons and much more quickly than traditional fonists--but the trade off is that the resulting fonic arte is less powerful, which is why melee fonists tend to combine the fonic force with a physical blow--what's commonly known as a field of fonon change brought about by the use of a strike arte compatible with a fonon type.

While the fon slot of the hands have a more "hands-on" approach to using fonons, shall we say, the fon slot of the feet can be greatly beneficial to fonists of both types when battling on a difficult terrain. For example, a skilled fonist could channel fonons to make ice less slippery, mud more solid, and so on and so forth; these abilities are amplified, as are any kind of fonic artes, when there are multiple fonists bent on accomplishing the same fonic effect. The fon slot of the feet may also be used in a combative purpose.

External fon slots are extremely flexible in their purposes of channeling fonons, but internal fon slots, as we have established before, have a fixed purpose with a dominant fonon type being used to help maintain that purpose. The heart uses Fifth Fonons, the stomach and intestines use Fourth Fonons, the lungs use Third Fonons, and the brain--and this makes it the most powerful and important fon slot--uses fonons of all types and memory particles. Memory particles are highly impressionable things and make memory storage possible, and over time the brain developed to work with memory particles to perform many other, more specific, functions.

The body always takes in fonons through the external fon slots to its internal fon slots to help maintain its structures and functions, although one cannot live on fonons alone.

Originally developed in the Dawn Age for combative purposes (especially during the Fonic War), there exists a devious device whose purpose is to completely cut off the flow of freely flowing fonons to the body.

While it cannot be mass-produced now due to its intricate design and high cost, that does not make the fon slot seal any less formidable. The seal uses a deadly combination of fonons to mimic the intensive pressure of the planet's core--memory particles are also involved in its mechanism--to forcibly close the target's fon slots. The sealing of a person's fon slots is highly unnatural and can very traumatizing on the target--more often than not the body panicked and shut down due to simple shock.

The fon slot seal was originally developed to close only the external fon slots--but recent advances had it able to close off internal fon slots as well, making it all the more deadly. Only a few, highly elite fonists have ever survived the effects of a fon slot seal, and the seal itself can take several months, even years, to undo, as it is like a lock with a code that changes periodically.

The goal of the use of a fon slot during war--particularly the Fonic War--was to prevent opponents from using fonic artes, as the principle behind it is that if a fonist cannot gather fonons, he cannot channel or otherwise execute fonic artes. Being a relatively new creation, it is doubtful whether its Dawn Age creators knew the strenuous effects of a fon slot seal could be fatal.

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Hikaru: I had soooooo much fun with this chapter.


	4. Fon Slot Chambers

A/N: Thanks for the lovely reviews

A/N: Thanks for the lovely reviews! You guys make me want to write more. I also love the science of this game, it stimulates my intellectual curiosity. Though I worry about boring my friends at school to death yaking on about it XD

This section is about the fon slot chambers (yes Kraal, they ARE useful, stop laughing at me!).

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Fon slot chambers, as the name implies, are a kind of reservoir of fonons kept close to one's fon slots for quick and ready use. They are colored orbs attached to capacity cores and are mainly for catalytic purposes. There are four types of fon slot chambers: carmine, cobalt, grass, and sunlight.

Fonons are combined within the chamber at high densities to produce its catalytic effect: carmine chambers can increase the strength of an arte with the Fifth Fonon, cobalt can increase the force or pressure of an arte using the Fourth Fonon, grass can enable quicker movements (such as stealing from an enemy) with the Third Fonon, and sunlight, as the densest of the fon slot chambers, can enable a fonist to use a field of fonon change of the normal power, but with fewer fonons.

Fon slot chambers were first invented to augment the strike and fonic artes of military fonists during the Fonic War. The destruction of not only the war itself but also that of the miasma—which is a corrosive gas that breaks down matter exponentially—was such that many types of fon slot chambers and how to use them were lost. No one today knows how the chambers were created, and not even Belkend's best fontech or any of Yulia City's technological marvels could make an original fon slot chamber.

Intelligence divisions of Kimlasca, Malkuth, and Daath militaries devoted themselves to claiming the fon slot chambers that survived the Fonic War. Often there were skirmishes over discovered chambers—that is how important these powerful, high concentrated fonon containers are to every world power. For these chambers would prove a great asset to each of them—to Kimlasca and Malkuth to strengthen their armies, and to Daath for not only to strengthen its army but also to keep the balance of power between Kimlasca and Malkuth as even as possible.

However, with the advents of Dr. Balfour and Dr. Orition from Keterburg, their combined efforts produced one way to make new fon slot chambers—fomicry. Granted, the replication process was not perfect, and those fon slot chambers ended up unstable, making them too dangerous for use. So priority was taken to excavating the existing fon slot chambers while researchers worked on developing new replication machines to properly create safe but powerful chambers.

Since they are so few, fon slot chambers are restricted to military use, and not to be sold on civilian market. However, those lucky enough to discover the chambers may deign to keep them, although their heads of state could commandeer them at any time. Both Kimlasca and Malkuth have trouble keeping the populace in line, in that a black market on fon slot chambers as well as capacity cores pilfered from both countries sprang up in Chesedonia; though the actual base of operations and supplies is located elsewhere. Military police from both countries agree that the Dark Wings, a group of bandits, is responsible for the illegal market.


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